bus & coach sales rrr 25/1/07 15:40 Page 10 BumpyBumpy ridesrides forfor somesome smoothsmooth progressprogress forfor othersothers establish, the 4,232 registrations total applies not only to buses and coaches over 8.5 tonnes gvw Going places: Setra coach There is much more to the UK bus but also encompasses about 300 lighter vehicles, sales recovered and coach market than meets the eye, in there apparently for purely arbitrary reasons. strongly last year The data are gathered from registration from a miserable applications by manufacturers and dealers, 2005, with the as David Wilcox discovers in this explains the SMMT. Most anomalies can be three-axle traced back to categorisation of minibuses (which S416GT-HD analysis of the latest annual should be excluded at this weight) and buses leading the way. based on light truck chassis, it seems. Take registration statistics. Irisbus registrations, for instance. The 2006 total includes 200 Daily minibuses with gross weights between 5.2 and 6.5 tonnes. Yet the EvoBus total he number of new buses and coaches excludes Mercedes Sprinter minibuses (direct over 8.5 tonnes gvw sold in the UK last rivals of the Daily) and around 300 Vario-based Tyear is pretty much unchanged from the buses up to 8.2 tonnes gvw. 2005 figure. But a bald statistic like this masks more than it reveals about this sector of the Buoyant coach market commercial vehicle market. It would be wrong to Registration statistics for big buses and coaches conclude, for instance, that UK bus and coach are far less anomalous, and make it plain that buyers, unlike their truck-operating counterparts, sales of full-size coaches (16 tonnes gvw and were left entirely unperturbed by the introduction above) grew more strongly than bus sales last of Euro-4 emissions limits in October. But it is year. Annual coach registrations grew by 7.1 per telling that by September 30, the eve of the Euro- cent to 933 in 2006. “We were surprised by the 4 deadline, bus and coach registrations overall buoyancy in the coach market,” says Volvo Bus last year were 12.6 per cent up on the previous marketing manager Adrian Wickens. year’s. Truck registrations at this point were only A registrations total of 403 keeps Volvo in its 2.4 per cent up. But then in the last four months dominant position in the UK coach market with a of the year bus and coach sales charts plunged, 43 per cent share. In previous years there has leaving the year-end registrations total at 4,232, been a marked swing away from Volvo’s mid- only 34 (0.8 per cent) up on 2005, according to engined B12M to the rear-engined B12B. Now data from The Society of Motor Manufacturers this trend appears to have run its course, with and Traders (table page 11). Unfortunately, these the mid-engined version ending up accounting for data are nothing like as robust and informative as 33 per cent of Volvo 12-litre coach sales in the might be expected — the SMMT is unable to say UK in 2006, only one percentage point down on precisely which types of vehicle are included and the year before. excluded from the total. So far as we can Scania coach sales grew in line with the 10 Transport Engineer February 2007 bus & coach sales rrr 25/1/07 15:40 Page 11 whole UK coach market. Annual registrations annual bus and coach registrations went from 186 to 201, keeping Scania in second (excluding most minibuses and other vehicles below 8.5 tonnes gvw) Source: SMMT place in the sales league table with a market manufacturer (parent 2006 2005 percentage share of 21 per cent. Volvo and Setra have or controlling group) change marched up to power ratings of 400hp and Volvo 1,059 1,335 -20.7 beyond, matching their engines to sophisticated automated-shift gearboxes such as as Volvo’s I- Alexander Dennis 876 663 +32.1 shift and ZF’s AS Tronic. Scania coach sales Scania (Volkswagen) 547 537 +1.9 people continue to persuade operators that this much engine power is unnecessary. The ZF Optare 453 517 -12.4 Ecomat 2 automatic gearbox used in Scania Irisbus (Fiat) 307 364 -15.7 coaches could not cope anyway with the huge VDL Bus (VDL) 224 137 +63.5 torque of 400hp-plus engines. Nearly 80 per cent of Scania coach sales in the UK last year are Neoman (MAN) 196 110 +78.2 accounted for by the K114 chassis, powered by Evobus (DaimlerChrysler) 154 194 -20.6 the 10.6-litre Euro-3 engine, now defunct. So Scania will be trying hard this year to convert UK BMC 123 101 +21.8 coach operators to its 12-litre Euro-4 engine. Bova (VDL) 75 58 +29.3 Surely few will prefer the five-cylinder, 8.9-litre Others 218 182 +19.8 DC9 — the only alternative on offer. There are two coach brands, Mercedes-Benz TOTAL 4,232 4,198 +0.8 and Setra, under DaimlerChrysler’s EvoBus UK umbrella. Both recovered from a miserable 2005, whole double-decker market and the continuing with combined annual registrations of full-size emergence of Alexander Dennis from the Bus battles: Volvo’s new coaches up from 61 to 110. Setra was the TransBus ashes. Alexander Dennis bus B9TL chassis dominant partner, as usual. Evobus UK bosses registrations grew by almost a third last year. The (here with doubtless will take particular satisfaction from Enviro400 double-decker (Transport Engineer Alexander having overtaken arch-rival MAN in UK coach July 2005) proved an instant success, and the Dennis sales. MAN’s Neoman operation (with MAN and Trident 2 chassis remained popular. Between Enviro400 Neoplan coaches) saw its coach registration total them, these two Alexander Dennis double- bodywork) is fall again last year, to below 70. deckers chalked up 315 registrations last year, intended to take VDL group subsidiary Bova also nosed past only 26 behind the previously-all-conquering over where the Neoman to take fourth spot in the coach sales Volvo B7TL. B7TL left off, ahead of the league table, thanks largely to a strong showing As for double-deck market share, Volvo took Cummins- (28) by its Magiq, supporting the evergreen 40 per cent last year, compared with Alexander powered Futura, which still sold a respectable 45 last year. Dennis’s 36 per cent. This year’s Euro-4 rivalry Enviro400. VDL Bus (formerly Daf Bus) found it tougher between these two bus-makers promises to be going with the SB4000. Annual registrations Nice Darts: last slipped from 34 to 25. Another coach chassis for year’s arrival of which 2006 was an unhappy year is Irisbus’s the Enviro 200 contributed to a Eurorider. Registrations fell to 29 after a bumper 32 per cent total of 48 in 2005. “We had a bit of bumpy ride growth in last year,” admits Irisbus UK communications even more intense. Volvo’s B9TL replacement for Alexander manager Stuart Mackay. the B7TL boasts a meaty 9.4-litre D9B engine. Dennis Alexander Dennis meanwhile fields the new 6.7- registrations. Double-deckers in decline litre Euro-4 Cummins ISBe. Despite the big The UK market for buses over 8.5 tonnes gvw difference in swept volume, these two engines grew by less than one per cent last year, to have similar power and torque outputs, so bus 2,906. Demand for double-deckers kept falling, fleet engineers face some intriguing choices. down from a peak of 1,568 in 2003 to only 864 in At the Euro Bus Expo in Birmingham three 2006, as London orders continued to slow. No months ago, Alexander Dennis was already manufacturer has felt this more sharply than cockily referring to its Enviro400 as “the Euro-4 Volvo, with B7TL double-deck chassis double-deck market-leader”. Not to be outdone, registrations slumping by 40 per cent last year, Volvo boasted of 300 UK orders for B9TL from 575 to 344. Volvo’s Mr Wickens blames this chassis. on the combination of an 8.3 per cent drop in the But two other double-deck chassis, from February 2007 Transport Engineer 11 bus & coach sales rrr 25/1/07 15:40 Page 12 Scania and MAN, look well-placed to capitalise its resurgent Dart SLF midibus and the first on the feeling among some UK bus fleets that Enviro200 Darts. Nearly 520 registrations in this exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is preferable to sector of the market represents a 19 per cent selective catalytic reduction (SCR) at Euro-4. The increase on 2005 for Alexander Dennis. The flip UK’s bus service operators grant means there is side of this for Optare was a 12 per cent sales little difference in the net price of diesel and the slide, to 453 registrations. Solo midibuses AdBlue needed by SCR systems. Little wonder account for over 90 per cent of these, despite then that EGR is winning friends among bus Optare’s attempts to prove it is no one-trick pony operators. Scania ranked third in UK double- with the introduction of models such as the decker sales last year with its East Lancs-bodied Tempo and Alero. OmniDekka, though registrations fell from 158 in Sales of the 12-metre, 17-tonnes-gvw Tempo 2005 to 121 in 2006. Scania’s UK bus boss Geoff failed to live up to Optare’s expectations last Bell is confident of recovering the lost ground this year. There were 30 registrations in 2005, its first year, helped by what he sees as a definite EGR year on sale, but only 23 in 2006.